Chapter 83 A Desperate Plan

• The silence in the vault was suffocating, broken only by the faint echo of our breathing. Every step I took felt heavier, as if the weight of the room itself was pushing down on me, forcing me to question everything we’d done. My pulse thudded in my ears, drowning out the sharp, taunting laughter that echoed through the stone walls.
• Astrid stood there, her presence like a cold shadow, blocking our only path to the weapon that had to be ours. The staff—our only hope of countering whatever dark magic the royal court had in their arsenal—was within reach, but I could feel its power growing more elusive by the second. It was as if the room itself was rejecting us.
• I tried to focus, my hands clenched into fists by my sides, my mind racing for a way out. But it wasn’t enough. Nothing felt like it would be enough. I glanced at Blue and Grey, both of them standing by my side, their eyes dark with frustration, but their resolve unbroken. They trusted me, and I couldn’t let them down—not now, not ever.